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The Acoustic Guitar Wire

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine
www.acousticguitar.com

May 2004 Issue 28

This issue is sponsored by Acoustic Pro Musician
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1. Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Wire
2. Acoustic Pro Musician
3. Acoustic Guitar Cruise II
4. Win Passage on the AG Cruise
5. New at Acoustic Guitar Central
6. Win "The Clam" by CaseXtreme
7. News and Notes
8. Maskanda Breakdown
9. On the Web: Festival Network Online
10. Highlights from Upcoming Issues of Acoustic Guitar
11. Try a FREE Issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine
12. Back Issues of Acoustic Guitar
13. Win a Free CD!
14. Fingerstyle Eternity
15. AG Wire Archives
16. Contact and Unsubscribe Info

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WELCOME TO THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR WIRE NO. 28

May is the birthday month of Pete Seeger, Link Wray, Dick
Dale, Robert Johnson, Jesse Winchester, Pete Townshend, Bob
Dylan, T-Bone Walker, and John Fogerty, among others, and
time for the next edition of AG Wire, full of the latest
acoustic music news, special offers, giveaways, helpful
tips, and information about new releases from String Letter
Publishing, brought to you by the editors of Acoustic Guitar
magazine.

This newsletter is best viewed in 10-point Courier. Our
hyperlinks are formatted to be "hot" in most email programs.
If your software doesn't support click-through linking from
email, just cut and paste the URLs into your Web browser.
Please note: some email programs have problems reading URLs
that wrap onto a second line. You may have to cut and paste
the wrapped portion of the URL into your Web browser in
order for the URL to work properly.

If you have received a forwarded copy of this newsletter and
would like to subscribe, fill out our online form:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/agwire/entry.html

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ACOUSTIC PRO MUSICIAN

Do you want a really great handmade guitar that fits you
perfectly? Acoustic Pro Musician has absolutely the best of
the best. Danny stocks 30 to 40 Goodalls and Collings all of
the time. You will also find some of the finest handmade
one-of-a-kinds from luthiers like Petros, Everett, Michael
Tobias, Kinnaird, and Kazuo Yairi, just to name a few. Danny
will also work with you on your own custom guitar. Check our
website or call Danny. $200 of guitar accessories, and free
shipping with each guitar.
Finish well,
Danny Brevard
Acoustic Pro Musician
Corporate Office:(800)658-1167
dbrevard@lcc.net
http://www.acousticpromusician.com

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2004 ACOUSTIC GUITAR CRUISE

Join the other seafaring guitar aficionados who are signing
up for the second annual Acoustic Guitar Cruise, sailing
the eastern Caribbean Oct. 23-30. Publisher David A.
Lusterman, AG editor Scott Nygaard, fingerstyle ace
Peppino D'Agostino, Taylor Guitars founder Bob Taylor,
guitar wizard Happy Traum, singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman,
and scores of your peers will be aboard the Holland America
Line's luxurious Zuiderdam. Find out more at
http://www.acousticguitarcruise.com

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ENTER TO WIN PASSAGE ON THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR CRUISE

Enter by July 31, and you could be sailing for free! Win
an ocean-view cabin for two in the Acoustic Guitar Cruise
grand prize package worth $3,390. Check out all the prizes,
including guitars, gear, and more, by clicking on the link
under "Win" at
http://www.acousticguitar.com

To meet some of our previous giveaway winners, go to
http://acousticguitar.com/giveaway2/winners/index.html

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NEW AT ACOUSTIC GUITAR CENTRAL
http://www.acousticguitar.com

Acoustic Guitar sweatshirts, caps, T-shirts, travel
tumblers, duffle bags, and other authentic AG wearables and
accessories are available in the Acoustic Guitar Online
Store. Make a $30 purchase and we'll send you a free
designer key chain/bottle opener. Point, click, and buy at
http://www.acousticguitaronlinestore.com

Learn how to play slack-key guitar in open-G tuning! Patrick
Landeza shows you the basics, along with a complete song to
play: "Kahuku Slack Key." The latest online lesson, with
audio, at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/Slack_Key2/1.html
You'll find more great lessons at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/lessons.shtml

You'll find updated listings for more than 150 guitar-
focused music camps, workshops, and guitar-building courses
in the Acoustic Guitar Summer Study Guide.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/search/summer/index.asp

Check out the huge Summer Gear Showcase of products from
nearly three dozen Acoustic Guitar advertisers.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/sgs.pdf

The June issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine arrived on
newsstands May 4. Read these excerpts online now:

-- Nylon-string Griot: Malian guitarist/singer Habib Koité
talks to Banning Eyre about his new live CD and the
evolution of his guitar style.

-- A profile of Montreal-based luthier Michael Greenfield.

-- Reviews of new CDs by Paco de Lucía, Janis Ian, El
McMeen, Helsinki Mandoliners, the Ken Hatfield Trio, the
all-star blues trio of Eric Bibb, Rory Block, and Maria
Muldaur, and others.

The June issue also includes feature-length surveys of
new guitars and equipment ("The News from Gearville") and
gear that will jump-start your creative process
("Inspirational Accessories"); lessons in songwriting and
blues; the music to Beppe Gambetta's "A Night in Frontenac";
the story behind Martin's elaborate millionth guitar; and
profiles of avant-garde guitarist (and new member of Wilco)
Nels Cline and country-folk singer-songwriter Mindy Smith.
http://www.acousticguitar.com

Acoustic Guitar magazine subscribers, now you can take care
of all your subscription needs online. Our website has been
upgraded to include easy access to your personal account.
You can pay your bill, renew, give a gift, and change your
address all online. And of course, new subscribers can sign
up online, too. Save yourself time and hassle by coming on
over to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/Subs/index.html

Get more every month when you subscribe to Acoustic Guitar
magazine. Get a FREE preview issue today.
http://www.acousticguitar.com
or call toll-free (800) 827-6837.

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CHAT NOW, CLAM-UP LATER: WIN "THE CLAM" TRAVEL CASE BY
CASEXTREME

The online discussion forums in Guitar Talk at Acoustic
Guitar Central churn with lively, opinionated,and
informative discussion about guitars, players, and acoustic
music. Chat about Gear, Players, Playing Guitar, and more.
Check up on events and post your own in the Gigs,Workshops,
and Gatherings forum.

And when you register to participate, you automatically get
a chance to win "The Clam," a fly it safe guitar transporter
made of incredibly strong corrugated polypro plastic. Each
case comes with detachable wheels, a shoulder strap, and six
special dense foam C-pads.

Get the details when you sign up today at
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi

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NEWS AND NOTES

According to market research results published in the
March/April issue of the International Bluegrass Music
Association (IBMA) newsletter, 13.4% of bluegrass consumers
download music from the Internet (as compared to 10.9% of
the general population). So it's not surprising that Apple's
iTunes Music Store is celebrating International Bluegrass
Month (May) with a collection of 16 recommended albums on
the iTunes Country homepage and an "Instrumental Bluegrass"
edition of the iTunes Essentials playlists.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/

The summer music festival season gets into full swing in
June. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 17-20, in
Telluride, Colorado, presents Tim O'Brien, Jorma Kaukonen,
Natalie MacMaster, Seldom Scene, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt,
Guy Clark, Joe Ely, the Subdudes, Reeltime Travelers, Jerry
Douglas, Ani DiFranco, Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck, the
Mammals, Mark O'Connor, Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes,
the Del McCoury Band, Mindy Smith, Rodney Crowell, Yonder
Mountain String Band, Emmylou Harris, and more.
http://www.planetbluegrass.com

The Sixth Annual Solar Music Festival, June 25-27, in Kit
Carson Park, Taos, New Mexico, features Sonia Dada, Robert
Earl Keen, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Cockburn, Los Lonely Boys,
and many others.
http://www.solarmusicfest.com

The David Bromberg Quartet, Tony Rice, Chris Smither, Nina
Gerber, the Rowan Brothers, Steve Earle and the Bluegrass
Dukes, Joan Baez, Greg Brown, and others will perform at the
ninth annual Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival, June 25-27,
at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, California.
http://www.katewolf.com/festival.

Speaking of Greg Brown, 'Going Driftless: An Artist’s
Tribute to Greg Brown'--with performances by Lucinda
Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Eliza Gilkyson, Iris
DeMent, Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky, Gillian Welch, and
others--has raised more than $50,000 for The Breast Cancer
Fund. The CD is available at
http://www.breastcancerfund.org and
http://www.redhouserecords.com

For more news and events, check out our online listings:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/issues/ag138/happs138.html

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MASKANDA BREAKDOWN

Martin Moro of Graz, Austria, asked what we knew about the
South African music style known as maskanda and its guitar
tunings. We turned to Marc Maingard, "the Luthier at the Tip
of Africa," http://www.guitarsafrica.co.za/, and he offered
this lucid explanation.

Maskanda, a mainly guitar-based urban Zulu music form that
has evolved from a solo style to incorporate concertina and
violin as well as bass and drums, got its name as a slang
derivation of the Afrikaans word musikant (musician). The
tunings vary from guitarist to guitarist; many invent their
own and become fiercely protective of them. The most common
drops the first treble E string down to D. One variation on
this replaces the D fourth string with a nylon first string
and tunes it in unison to the D first string. This is known
as "double first" tuning, pronounced 'dabul fersi.' While
growing up in Natal, South Africa, I learned a tuning that I
still use: the high E is dropped to D, then a wooden
homemade capo, with a notch cut out at the end so that it
stops all the strings except the low E, is placed on the
second fret. The maskanda guitar technique involves the
thumb and index finger--the thumb plays double-time staccato
bass runs, while the index finger picks out a countermelody.

Get more tips, advice, and answers to questions about
guitars, gear, and history by visiting the Q&A section at
http://www.acousticguitar.com

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ON THE WEB

Festival Network Online has added a radius search option to
its database. Keying off your zip code, you can find summer
music festivals (among more than 14,000 varied events)
within walking, driving, or flying distance across the
United States. FNO offers a free search to all visitors
interested in basic festival information, while vendors,
artists, exhibitors, and musicians can purchase a
professional membership that accesses all event details and
offers expanded search options.
http://www.festivalnet.com.

Get more every month when you subscribe to Acoustic Guitar.
Get a FREE preview issue today!
http://www.acousticguitar.com
or call toll-free (800) 827-6837.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM UPCOMING ISSUES OF ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAGAZINE

Our July issue, on newsstands June 1, will include:

-- A cover feature package on guitar wizard John Jorgenson,
including his account of what it was like to portray Django
Reinhardt in the new feature film 'Head in the Clouds.'

-- A review of the latest pickups for acoustic guitars.

-- An examination of the way independent musicians are
taking advantage of digital downloading technology.

-- Profiles of Peter Finger, Cindy Cashdollar, Matt
Nathanson, and Bernie Leadon, plus Adam Levy's power chord
lesson and music to Muriel Anderson's "Parisian Waltz."

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SUBSCRIBE TO ACOUSTIC GUITAR

Would you like to preview a complimentary issue of Acoustic
Guitar? To send for your FREE TRIAL ISSUE, just click the
link below. If you like it and decide to continue, pay just
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for any reason you decide not to continue, simply write
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ISSUE is yours to keep, no matter what.

Get a FREE preview issue today!
http://www.acousticguitar.com

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NOW AVAILABLE FROM STRING LETTER PUBLISHING

Fill out your collection of the award-winning magazine for
acoustic musicians. We have issues going back to the year
1990 when Acoustic Guitar first hit the stands. Get them
while they last!
http://www.stringletter.com/index.asp

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WIN A FREE CD!

Humor us--and win! We're giving away a free CD of acoustic
guitar music to the contributor of the best music joke or
gig story each month. To enter, simply send your favorite
music joke or anecdote about a gig from hell to
mailto:jokes@stringletter.com. Be sure to include a mailing
address in case you win. We'll award a new prize with each
edition.

This month's winning joke comes from M.T. Brawner of
Savannah, Georgia

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FINGERSTYLE ETERNITY

An unmarried woman goes to see her doctor for a follow-up
visit after extensive lab and X-ray studies. Sadly, the
doctor tells her she has an untreatable illness and only six
months to live. "Is there nothing I can do?" the woman asks,
"Well," says the doctor, "you could find a fingerstyle
guitar player and marry him right away." "How can that help
my illness?" she asks. "Oh, it will do nothing for the
illness, but it will make that six months seem like a
lifetime."

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AG WIRE ARCHIVES

Back issues of the AG Wire are available online at:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/wire_archive/index.shtml

To subscribe to the AG Wire, go to
http://www.acousticguitar.com/wire_archive/index.shtml

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Letter Publishing is prohibited. Acoustic Guitar Wire and
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Publishing.

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